The best is ready to begin

When I was a kid, I used to enjoy watching ABC's Growing Pains, though I was always miffed at their pedantic portrayal of gender roles, what with brainy Carol and stupid Mike. At least until Mike got to star in Our Town and finally found some direction in his life.

When I used to watch the show's opening sequence and theme "As Long as We've Got Each Other," I used to imagine that the Seaver parents, Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns, were the ones singing those soulful lyrics.

As long as we keep on giving,
We can take anything that comes our way.
Baby, rain or shine, all the time.
We got each other, sharing the laughter and love.

I was disappointed the other day when I was browsing the TV's Greatest Hits album on this music "sharing" web site to find that the song wasn't sung by them.

But there is a silver lining, Alan Thicke did write the themes to not only The Facts of Life, but also Diff'rent Strokes. Go figure.